Log in Subscribe

Sunday players

Posted

It may have just been intramural touch football but the rivalry between the OU Sports Information Staff and the Sports Department of the OU Daily was intense.

So intense were those touch football games in the early 1970s on the north side of Memorial Stadium some players are still feeling the effects today.

One of the combatants who played for the Sports Information team called the other day with news he has recently had knee replacement surgery.

When I asked him when he injured his knee he replied, “When I was playing touch football with you.”

That was a real head scratcher for me knowing he has run some 30,000 miles in 15 marathons, training for said marathons and running to be running.

Bill Hancock had to give up running when he broke his hip and had to have complete replacement on a trip to Italy.

That’s when he started cycling and that prompted his bike ride across the country that led to his writing the book “Riding with the Blue Moth”.

It detailed his grief at losing his son, Will, in the OSU plane crash on their trip back to Stillwater after a basketball game in Colorado.

But I digress.

We always played the OU Daily sports writers on Sunday afternoons so I guess that means we were Sunday players.

And just because it was a competitive game of “touch” football didn’t mean there weren’t injuries.

In addition to Hancock’s knee, I once sustained a separated shoulder in a game.

It was a long walk back to the Sigma Chi House and a long night with an aching shoulder.

It took awhile to get back to being a Sunday player again.

Comments

No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here